Pilot: Salivary lactoferrin as a potential preclinical Alzheimer's disease biomarker

Alzheimer's disease (AD) research increasingly emphasizes accessible biomarkers for early detection. Lactoferrin, an iron-binding glycoprotein present in saliva, has been associated with AD pathology with mixed results. In this pilot study, saliva samples from 17 middle-to-older-aged Black and non-Hispanic White adults at risk for AD were measured. After adjusting for demographic variables, salivary lactoferrin (sLF) concentrations correlated significantly with Digit Span Memory Test scores (p = 0.013) and modestly with visuospatial performance (p = 0.194), with no racial differences observed. These preliminary results support further large-scale studies to assess sLF as a potential noninvasive biomarker for AD.